1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates to mineral prospecting and more particularly to an ore sample crusher for pulverizing ore samples to be tested for mineral content.
Natural deposits of minerals are usually combined with earth formations and in prospecting for minerals it is necessary to obtain samples of the mineral containing earth which, because of its compactness, usually results in small rock-like lumps or particles of the ore and earth. These rock-like lumps must be pulverized or reduced to a comminuted state in order to separate the ore from the earth and determine whether or not the ratio of mineral to earth is sufficient to economically justify a mining operation. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a portable apparatus for easily crushing samples of ore adjacent the location in which the ore is found.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Prior patents for crushing small articles have generally related to ice crushers, such as for crushing ice cubes, or the like. U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,669 discloses an ore crushing apparatus for a mining operation in which slurry contained particles of ore too large to pass through a grizzly are crushed by a ram moving one wall of the grizzly against a breaker plate for crushing ore chunks between the grizzly and plate wherein the crushing members comprise interdigitated teeth for reducing the ore lumps to a size capable of passing through the grizzly walls with the slurry.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,393 discloses a base having an arm pivotally connected with the base for vertical reciprocation toward and away from the base which moves a crushing head into and out of a crushing bowl for pulverizing a medicinal tablet contained by the bowl.
This invention is distinctive over the ore mining U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,669 by providing planar crushing jaws pulverizing selected quantities of ore manually disposed between the crushing jaws wherein the pulverized ore is dispensed from the jaws into a container. This invention is also distinctive over the tablet crushing U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,393 by providing an increased mechanical advantage between the ore crushing surfaces and in which the ore crushing jaws may be continuously moved toward and away from each other while being fed additional ore samples from an attached hopper.